East New York Is Template for Housing Plan

Once again, East New York is in the news as the ground zero for Mayor de Blasio’s housing plan. If we read this article in Crain’s correctly, the formula seems to be: Rezone Atlantic Avenue from Euclid Avenue to Pennsylvania Avenue. Inject public and private dollars into developing office, retail and manufacturing space around the Broadway Junction transit hub. This, the thinking goes, will spur development of 50-30-20 high-rise housing in East New York, which will help assuage the city’s affordability problem.

Don’t worry if these new apartments increase housing costs in the area, the article said, because this plan will bring lots of jobs there so residents can afford the new towers. For example, the city wants to bring food manufacturing to an empty three-block stretch of brownfield where the largest food factory in the city, Blue Ridge Farms, was once located.

In short, the Mayor hopes to repeat the success of the redevelopment of downtown Brooklyn in East New York. Said the story:

City Planning Commission Chairman Carl Weisbrod aims to spur a renaissance of the neighborhood by rezoning the area to spark the development of thousands of residential units ringed by mixed-use corridors and bisected by a reimagined Atlantic Avenue.”The plan for East New York offers a template for how our ambitious housing goals can be accomplished on a neighborhood level,” said Mr. Weisbrod. “It sets out a framework for new housing and economic development along key transit corridors.”